As smartphones became more and more popular, people changed how they shopped. The boundary between online and offline shopping is becoming less obvious. For example, goods ordered online may be received at brick-and-mortar stores and paid for with smartphones. The concept of Online Merges with Offline (OMO), aiming to eliminate the boundary between online and brick-and-mortar stores and improve the user-friendliness and customer experience of services, is attracting attention. For our company, which has many private brand (PB) and national private brand (NPB) product lines, implementing OMO measures and merging the online and offline retailing will be very effective.
The same sales promotion campaigns are waged at both online and brick-and-mortar stores, and the latest information, such as the hottest items frequently talked about on SNS and sales ranking information, is offered via the SAC’S BAR app. Point-of-purchase (POP) ads and monitors at brick-and-mortar stores show the same images as those on the app screen, assisting customers who visit the store after viewing information on the app screen to find and purchase their desired products. Even when a product is sold out at a store, customers can still purchase it at the store, using our unique Physical Store EC system. They select and pay for the product on the tablet device at the store. The product will be delivered to their home, or they can receive it at the store.
We have launched the HIGI series. (HIGI literally means secret techniques in Japanese.) For this series, we will carefully select products that offer excellent quality and cost effectiveness, regardless of their brands. The selected products will be announced in the SAC’S BAR app as well as at our website; SAC’S BAR app members will be notified through push notification. You can buy HIGI series products on our EC website as well as at our stores, and you can use your reward points wherever you buy, making your shopping more convenient and comfortable. Previously, each of our stores stocked up on and displayed their merchandise independently. Taking the opportunity of launching the HIGI series, all our stores started displaying their merchandise in the same manner, showing the HIGI series products as our main merchandise, so that customers visiting our stores after viewing the app screen can recognize the products more easily.
In this age of SNS, individuals have power to convey their messages and attract followers. For business enterprises like ours, how we build our relationships with individuals is key. We plan and produce our products through collaborating with vloggers and other popular influencers as well as crowdfunding campaigns organized by our craftspeople. We offer information through SNS and our app before launching products so that potential customers look forward to them. Customers feel that they buy products from individuals, rather than from a company or store. Our sales strategy is shifting from where to from whom customers buy our products. Some of our products sold these ways nearly sell out immediately after their launch. These are examples of our successful SNS utilization.
We also focus our attention on individuals working at our stores. We offer information on them in our app and on our website, creating content focusing on each of them such as My bags showing their own favorite bags and We sell bags showing videos of their private lives. Through offering information on each staff member, rather than store information, we are working so our customers will feel closer to our staff, building relationships with them and becoming their fans. Eventually, we hope that fans of our staff will become SAC’S BAR fans. For this, we will continue to take attractive measures.
